Buy Processor or Amplifier first?

[novisnick]

Sept 7, 2013 21:15:02 GMT -5 thoff said:

I also got my HarmonyOne all setup, and it seems to be working well.

How do you like your Monitor 7s. Can you tell me a little about them please. I'm thinking of 7s or 11s . The 100 s are just too much $.
Thanks

[neo20013]

Did you think that the Yamaha + UMC-200 are an improvement on the Yamaha alone?

[thoff]

I do like the monitor 7s, but they are the only "real" speakers I've owned, so I don't have much to compare it too. I had the monitor 3s as my mains at one point. I do find the base in the 7s to be a bit lacking, so I'd encourage you to go for the 11s if you can. I don't plan on upgrading my speakers anytime soon since I mostly watch TV, movies, and sports I don't see a big need to replace them for that. Besides, I live in northern Virginia (just outside D.C.) and housing is very expensive here and I currently live in a townhouse. Maybe once I am able to upgrade to a single family home it will make more sense to upgrade, but I can shake things off my neighbors walls if I want to as it is now.

I do think Yamaha/UMC-200 is an improvement over the yamaha alone. Again, I haven't done much critical reviewing of things like this, but the sounds seem clearer and more distinct. Voice tracks on my center from TV seem easier to hear and the bass out of my subwoofer seems to be better controlled. My sub tends to get "boomy". I am going to turn up the gain on my sub later and re-run EmoQ and see what happens, but I am very happy so far.
Part of the improvement may be that now I can play sound coming from a HDMI source vice Coax only. This may be part of the better clarity I am hearing, but I have no way of knowing for sure.

I do have one question. I have chromecast hooked up to my HDMI 3 input. Last night when I connected my phone to the chromecast, the UMC-200 automatically switched inputs on me. Is this how it is supposed to be?